Good session, but several questions were answered at the end that go beyond what’s generally reported with Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). I asked whether in a pre-shared secret situation with WPA, which is what most home and small business users who aren’t running authentication servers will need to use, the master key used to create [...]

The UN thinks wireless networks could help poorer nations narrow the digital divide. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition] The UN thinks wireless networks could help poorer nations narrow the digital divide. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

Does the future belong to free city hotspots or will the commercial hotspot network operators take over? There seem to be different opinions. Does the future belong to free city hotspots or will the commercial hotspot network operators take over? There seem to be different opinions. An article published in January 2003 says that commercial [...]

The Chicago Tribune reported last April that Chicago’s ambitious CivicNet project is in the final bidding phase for a giant network to provide data and voice services to the city’s agencies and facilities such as libraries, fire and police stations. Finalists are SBC Comunications, AT&T and the US subsidiary of Alcatel. The Chicago Tribune reported [...]

Broadbandreports.com posted a short piece on municipalities developing their own broadband infrastructure. According to the article, Quincy, Florida is one of the latest areas to consider developing their own broadband infrastructure. Others considering similar projects are Washington State, portions of Wyoming, Tennessee, several counties in Virginia and even small communities throughout the UK. Broadbandreports.com posted [...]

The software giant’s announcement of a new PDA operating system with mobility software has garnered support from Wi-Fi and hotspot companies like Boingo, Wayport, T-Mobile, PCTEL, and Socket Communications. [802.11-Planet.com] The software giant’s announcement of a new PDA operating system with mobility software has garnered support from Wi-Fi and hotspot companies like Boingo, Wayport, T-Mobile, [...]

Calgary tries Wi-Fi as way to make the city seem more welcoming to high-tech jobs: It’s a partnership with sponsors that is offering free Wi-Fi and a branding program. The program will make Wi-Fi more visible to visitors enhancing the city’s appearance as a place to locate high-technology jobs, especially among the white-collar crowd. [via [...]

Vivato receives $45 million in additional funding: If there ever was a question that the company had enough cash to ramp up for enterprise-scale deployment and convince corporations that it would be around long enough for them to buy antennas, this probably quashed it. The company has taken in nearly $70M in several rounds…. [802.11b [...]

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case in the fall that could determine whether states can pass laws that prohibit municipalities from providing telecommunications and Internet services in competition with the private sector. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case in the fall that could determine whether states can pass laws [...]

The European Commission recently contributed approximately EUR 2.9 million to Andalucía, Spain for a regional project involving the creation of a network of centers of public access broadband in small rural towns. During the period 2002-2003, the European funding is expected to attract EUR 1.328 million in further investment from the public sector, and EUR [...]